Every tournament player can tell fascinating stories about his wins and losses at final tables. That’s cool, we get it: there are no unimportant hands at this stage, every mistake can lead to a catastrophe, and coin flips can be really expensive. The success of a player is often measured not only by the number of cashes but the quantity of final tables he reached, especially in live tournaments. And pre-final tables are usually excluded from global player’s statistics, for they bring you no glory and no money.

But oftentimes, the pre-final table turns out to be the most dramatic stage of the tournament for many players because it’s this stage that determines who will enter the long-awaited final table and who will go round telling the same long, sad “I-almost-made-it” story to his friends.

The bust-outs in 10th to 18th places are very painful, as even ninth place can bring you more psychic income, though as a rule it’s no big difference from 10th in terms of cash. Do you remember how our idol Daniel Negreanu left WSOP Main Event in 11th place back in November? In that hand, the river determined his fate, tricks of fortune. You can’t avoid such tricks in poker, but let us talk about what you can do to pass this stage of an MTT in an optimal way.

1. First of all, relax. A lot of players, especially novice ones, enter some special form of tilt at the pre-final table and start losing it, which leads to bad decisions and even worse consequences. Pull yourself together and try to control the situation. If you feel that you can’t handle it alone, write a message to your friends or Skype them. Their countenance will calm you down.

2. Look up your opponents’ previous MTT results. You all know the websites where you can get that stuff. Pull up the records on the remaining players to define the regulars and the weak players. Pay special attention to the maximum cash of each player. This will help you choose the optimal strategy against them.

Those who are trying to get to the first final table of their career are the perfect target for your attacks and their blinds are free chips for you. For instance, if a player’s max cash was $300 and the first prize of the tournament you’re in is 20 times more, it’s not the hardest guess that the money is pressing on such a player and he tends to play over-accurately. Label each player with a color and make a note. Ideally, your table should shine with labels like a Christmas tree, like this:

3. Take a close look at the players’ stacks and their position. Avoid fooling around with the chip leaders. They feel perfectly safe and tend to play aggressively. Put your pressure on the middle-stacks. They usually prefer not to risk it and wait for the short stacks to bust out.

4. If you have uncomfortable stack, hold your horses. You always have the option to go all-in and if you are destined to bust out on the pre-final table, it’s better to do it as late as possible. The payouts for the 18th and 10th places are very different.

Keep in mind that even the chip leaders might as well be dealt AA vs. KK a couple of times and the pre-final table may quickly turn into the final table. However, please note that there will be a moment when six or five players are left at the table and the blinds with antes will become a problem, so sitting in ambush is not an option. You’ll have to find ways to earn additional chips.

5. Open the second table of the tournament. Pay attention to everything that’s going on there. Try to make notes of all of the irregular lines of the players. Your goal is to collect as many notes as possible both on the opponents at your table and at the second one. These notes will surely come in handy at the final table.

This stage of the tournament is not designed to be played on the tablet while watching your favorite series. Pay close attention to what your opponents are doing. In just one or two hours, this intel could bring you several hundred or even thousand dollars. When taking notes, don’t just type “fish” or “I hate that guy.” Write down everything that might help you later:

6. Ship it. All of the above is just general recommendations. The key points are play your game, trust your sixth sense, and avoid unnecessary risks. If you want to learn how to enter late stages of MTT more often, become a 2CardsCollegestudent. Apply for training here.We wish you luck and big scores!